Hermione wasn't able to sleep that night, her mind too full of what she had done to upset Ron and what she should have said to defend herself. All sorts of intelligent, brave and insulting ideas ran through her mind, even as she acknowledged that Grindelwald had done a masterful job of removing him from the room without upsetting the rest of the family.
She got up as soon as she heard Grindelwald moving around after one of his rare brief sleeps and emerged into the living room in her pyjamas. He looked up as she came in, then looked away quickly when he realised that she was wearing a pair of shorts, muttering something about propriety. She looked down at her legs; it was an old pair of men's swimming trunks that ended just above her knees. She shrugged and settled under a blanket in front of the fire with a book. Gellert came and joined her not long after with a hot chocolate and they both settled into their books until the sun rose.
She watched the sunrise from the massive windows and Gellert, noticing her awe, showed her how to get out onto the balcony. She took a deep breath of fresh air, realising that it was the first time she'd been outside in days.
'We need a garden.' She told him. He gave her a look.
'This is a fortress, for war, it is not a home. It doesn't need a garden.' He said sharply and Hermione turned to look at him in the light of the new sun.
'I think this is a home now, the people here, we have nowhere else to go. At the end of the war, I think a lot of us will want to stay, if you let us.' She told him. He seemed genuinely surprised at this and took a few minutes to process what she'd said.
'What about you?' He asked her curiously. She nodded thoughtfully.
'I obliviated my parents and sent them to Australia. I guess if you don't mind?' She asked nervously. He gave her that half smile.
'I'll make sure the wards are charged.' He told her sincerely, 'and I'll stretch the muggle repelling charm to the forest. The grounds won't be under the blood wards, but they hardly need defending. Would you like to see the village?' He asked suddenly.
'There's a village?' She asked in surprise. She had never imagined they were actually close to civilisation. He nodded and led her out through the front gate.
They wandered down the steep track, and for the first time Hermione revelled in the stunning surroundings. The Austrian alps were blanketed in thick green, snow gleaming a crisp white in the crevasses. They was only one town nearby which he'd carefully left untouched and he took her there for the morning. It was a long walk, descending down the mountainside and into vibrant woodland.
The town was nestled in a bend in the river, all little stone houses with grey tiled rooves and whitewashed walls. It was a fascinating tourist town, famous for a set of waterfalls that froze over winter to become ice climbing hot spots.
There was a small museum dedicated to the history of ice climbing in the town – a whole room dedicated to a group that had tried to climb the waterfall on the eastern side of the valley in 1942 and had gone missing. Grindelwald was carefully blank as they looked over the recovered gear and blandly informed Hermione that they could probably find the bodies in a mass grave in Germany.
They left the museum around lunchtime and Hermione excused herself to the bathroom. When she returned he had moved from the bench where she'd left him and was speaking to several old men, the rapid flow of German far beyond the few words Hermione knew. Hermione appeared at his shoulder, recognising the older men as muggles, probably around eighty.
'They claim to recognise me from the 1940's.' He explained to her in English. Hermione frowned and played along, commenting that his grandfather had served in Austria during the war. She asked if the men had ever known a Lieutenant Granger, and wouldn't it be incredible if he really had served in this town. Grindelwald quickly picked up on the theme of excited tourist, and translated what she'd said in a rapid stream of German.
The three older men quickly seemed bored by the conversation as it turned from a mystery into the mundane and left quickly.
'I've never heard you speak your own language before.' She remarked as they wandered down one of the wide streets.
'None of you would understand me if I did.' He joked, then said something in German. She looked at him blankly and he laughed.
'I know some words!' She argued reproachfully.
'Let me hear, Mäuschen.'
'What does that mean?' She demanded, knowing from his expression that he'd just called her a pet name.
'You don't know that one!' He teased. 'Tell me what you know and I'll tell you what Mäuschen means.'
'Fine, I only know a few.' She admitted and he gestured for her to continue. 'Okay, I know Schnell, they use that one in the movies, oh and Danke, that's thanks. Nein is no.' She paused, wracking her brain for any more but nothing came to mind.
'Ja is yes,' He told her, laughing. 'Mäuschen means little mouse. It is what we call children or family.'
She gaped at him.
'I am not a mouse!' She exclaimed, chasing after him as he turned into a bakery.
They returned to Nurmengard soon after lunch, both exhausted from the long walk but feeling invigorated. Hermione hadn't realised how much she'd missed being outside. She was surprised how relaxed Harry was, she'd completely forgotten to leave a note explaining where they were and had expected him to be panicking. He just looked up when they arrived at the duelling room and asked if they would mind demonstrating a duel in front of the class.
Hermione choked on the glass of water she'd just poured even as Grindelwald agreed. She was nowhere near an equal match to duel Gellert. She opened her mouth to say so but he was already telling Harry that he'd meant to duel her at some point. She just gaped at him, he usually hated the idolism he'd somehow earned from the students during his divination lecture. The walk must have put him in a very good mood.
She joined him in the centre of the floor.
'You can't be serious. I'm nowhere near ready to duel you again.' She hissed as the first student wandered in.
'Don't worry, I'll go easy. It's time for us to try again. Imagine this time that you could break my shield, duel as if I am your equal. We will fight like real wizards today.' He clapped her on the shoulder with a manic grin and twirled his wand.
Dumbledore's Army were assembled far too soon, murmuring excitedly when they saw who was here. She wondered, as she listened to their conversations, how she had become a powerful stranger to them. They spoke of her in the same manner as Kingsley, with some measure of awe.
Once Harry had introduced them, Grindelwald stepped forwards and explained that they were about to duel. Then he summoned a basin from the edge of the room, using a silver knife to prick his finger. A drop of his blood fell into the silvery potion inside. He gestured for Hermione to do the same, and as she did, he explained to the assembled students that this was a temporary ward tuned to specifically their magic. For as long as it lasted, nothing either of them cast could do lasting harm to one another. He then poured the potion into a shallow trench. It ran around the edges of the floor and he explained that this would stop any of their magic escaping to harm a spectator. He warned them that the only place for unprotected duelling was the battlefield.
They strode to separate ends of the room as the student body watched in excited silence. Harry counted down from three and both Gellert and Hermione cast before he'd even closed his mouth on one. The two spells collided with a colossal boom and exploded like fireworks across the room. Hermione transfigured the sparks into hail stones and send them back at him. He summoned a giant Chinese dragon to swallow the balls of ice which disintegrated into ash as it reached Hermione, she turned the ash into a sandstorm, which he formed into a massive sand-horse which charged her. She used a strong gust of wind to dissipate it, then summoned a massive tidal wave. Grindelwald turned the greater part into scalding steam, which she turned into a thick fog so that she could take a breather.
She quickly erected a shield and cast a Homenum Revelio, which illuminated the mass of students on one side of the room, Harry on the other, and Grindelwald crouching slightly to the left of where he had been. She cast a little charm to make the stone beneath his feet slippery, then had to stop to fend off a pack of ice wolves that appeared out of nowhere. She ended up having to conjure fire to scare them away, which unfortunately burned off the mist.
Her fire suddenly stopped obeying her and Grindelwald turned it into a whip, chasing the wolves back towards her. Desperately she formed a wall of earth, but realised too late that that had been a mistake. Suddenly conjuring something that massive drained her of too much magic, so she was helpless to do anything as Grindelwald blew her wall to pieces and disarmed her.
There was a stunned silence before Dumbledore's Army burst into thunderous applause.